Nomination Title: #ChangiBarepackers

Tell the story about this nominated campaign since 1 January 2016 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms.

‘Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport.’

Singapore’s Changi Airport stands witness to such numerous tales.

However, despite India being their 6th largest market, Changi was unable to unlock the true potential of racking in sales. The reason being, a majority of the travelers were unaware of Changi Airport’s slew of facilities and the retail experience. Therefore, it was imperative for Changi Airport to reach out to Indian travelers and familiarize them with the lucrative retail experience at this transit airport. While the business objective was to trigger sales Changi Airport’s exclusive retail offering, the communication objective was to showcase the depth and width of Changi's exclusive retail offering and get our audiences to engage and explore this unparalleled experience.

While observing the buying and travel behavior of Indians at international airports, a key insight came to light highlighting the fact that while most consumers seek for a comfortable and pleasurable shopping experience, they confine themselves to the boundaries of duty-free stores. Also, there is an unusually large preference for buying international brands overseas. Moreover, reviews/experiences from real people play an important role in influencing purchase decisions.

All this culminated into a simple strategy, to showcase Changi as an entity more than just a mundane transit layover airport. It would present itself to the Indian audience as the hub for a rich traveler experience by not only building credibility for the airport group but also featuring their diverse offerings through the following proposed idea.
Thus in a peculiar campaign, Singapore’s Changi Airport challenged a celebrity vlogger couple to travel without any luggage to an unknown destination while having a layover at the airport. With the aim of increasing visibility for Changi’s retail spread to the Indian consumers thereby elevating footprint, the airport group introduced to social media the extraordinary concept of #ChangiBarepackers.

Considering that micro influencers with their individual blogs have gained momentum recently for their ability to engage with consumers in a unique fashion, video was identified as the most influential medium to showcase the retail prowess of Changi. Sherry Shroff and Vaibhav Talwar rose up to the challenge.

On arrival at the airport with empty suitcases, they were given Changi Airport money to indulge in their purchases for their journey forward. The curated visual content was amplified through social media platforms namely YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. On completion of their task, the influencers were gifted an experiential trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. As Sherry and Vaibhav posted vlogs and photographs of their experience on their social media handles, all key brands and facilities across Changi Airport’s three terminals were featured.

Through the campaign, Changi saw an upsurge in engagement on social media platforms by over 200% than the expected KPI’s. Partially due to the campaign, passenger traffic rose by 7.8%. #ChangiBarepackers generated 50 unique posts and 3 vlogs from the 2 influencers generating more than 12,00,000 impressions in less than a week across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. The influencers loved the concept to the extent that they voluntarily created an additional vlog on their YouTube platform than the deliverables. Sherry Shroff even mentioned in an article for Rolling Stones – Hot List of 2016 (profiling trend makers from diverse fields of entertainment) that #ChangiBarepackers was one of the most exciting journeys’ that she has been a part of. Changi Airport’s India Facebook fan base shot up by 40,172 likes organically in just the span of a week.

The campaign succeeded in garnering not only an upsurge in the retail footprint at Changi helping them achieve their business objectives, but also revealed a significant increase in traffic and engagement on social media platforms.

In a unique manner, without boosting any content on social media, #ChangiBarepackers organically succeeded in creating a mark for itself in the minds’ of the Indian audience.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and results of this nominated PR program since the beginning of 2016 (up to 150 words).

-Exceeded KPIs set for engagement on social media platforms by more than 200%
-Partially due to this campaign, the passenger traffic at Changi Airport increased by 7.8% in August 2016. There was a 2% increase in sales at airside shops as well among Indian travelers at Changi Airport
-#ChangiBarepackers generated 50 unique posts and 3 vlogs from the 2 influencers generating more than 12,00,000 impressions in a week across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
-The India Facebook fan base increased organically by 40,172 in the span of a week
-Changi Airport received 13 blogger engagement requests post the campaign
-Sherry Shroff, acknowledged as the most influential lifestyle blogger admitted #ChangiBarepackers had been one of the most exciting campaigns she was a part of in an interview by Rolling Stones – Hot List of 2016